Dream of Me/Believe in Me

at Dragon. “That is true, isn't it? You're not suggesting otherwise?”
    “Oh, no, certainly not. Eminently acceptable … of course … absolutely. The only
small
complication might be that at the moment her half-brother Sven, who appears to be closely related to a slug, doesn't seem entirely certain of the dear girl's whereabouts.”
    Hawk gave himself a moment apparently to absorb this. He was enjoying himself hugely. Since his first encounter with the Hakonson brothers—Wolf andDragon—he had felt caught in a maelstrom not of his making. While he agreed wholeheartedly with the objective of the alliance, he didn't mind getting a little of his own back, however briefly. Watching Dragon twist on the hook of diplomatic catastrophe was proving to be unexpectedly pleasant.
    “You aren't suggesting he's lost her?” Hawk asked with feigned alarm.
    “Of course not! The fellow's a dullard. Undoubtedly it's all a misunderstanding. I did have the idea that perhaps, just perhaps, she might have come this way but apparently not….”He trailed off as the look in Hawk's eyes struck him as suspicious. “You haven't seen her, have you?”
    “Well, now it's odd you should mention that. The strangest thing happened. Three of the Lady Klonka's servants …”
    Dragon closed his eyes, searching for patience, and therefore missed Hawk's grin. “The Lady Krysta.”
    “Whatever, three of her servants showed up here. There's a strange, grubby fellow who looks like a troll, a woman named Raven, and one other … odd girl, very black hair that has a tendency to run when it gets wet.”
    Dragon shook his head in puzzlement. “Her hair runs?”
    “More specifically, the dye in it runs. Turns out it's actually blond. Turns out she isn't actually a servant.
Turns out
Klonka—”
    “Krysta!”
    “—had some outlandish notion of coming here in disguise in order to get to know me before we were wed.”
    Dragon, sensible man that he was, looked suitably appalled. “Tell me you're making this up.”
    “Couldn't possibly. Besides, you're supposed to be the one with imagination.”
    “She's here?”
    “Oh, yes, most definitely here.”
    “Praise whatever gods want to take credit for it,” Dragon said fervently. “I thought Wolf was going to dismember her half-brother limb by limb when the fool turned up at Sciringesheal and announced she was missing.”
    “Seems a reasonable thing to do but you might have some sympathy for the poor fellow. She's … unusual.”
    “Wolf said she was beautiful, soft-spoken, and had lovely eyes. He went so far as to claim that if she were Saxon instead of Norse, he'd be after me to wed her.”
    “Forget that,” Hawk snapped. He caught himself half-rising out of his seat and sat down again abruptly but not before Dragon noticed.
    The Viking grinned broadly. “Like that, is it? I'm glad to know the two of you are getting along.”
    “I didn't say we were getting along. She's just a woman and an unruly one at that.”
    Dragon was close to outright laughter but managed to contain it, if only barely. “Those are the best kind.”
    “It may be a joke to you but it isn't to me. I've already had one wife who couldn't be trusted and I don't want another. Not that I think she's dishonorable in any way, just that she may not have the best judgment in the world. Coming here as she did was a hell of a risk.”
    “So she has courage. That's bad?”
    “I'd prefer for her to have sense. She's … unpredictable.”
    The man who adored women nodded in understanding. “Ah, I see. You want order, no surprises, calm, boring—”
    “When you've lived with as much disorder as I have, boredom has a real attraction.” Hawk sighed and ran a hand through his hair, unaware that he'd already raked it into a hopelessly tangled mess. “She fell in the water today.I thought she was going to drown. I felt … I don't even know what I felt but it was awful.”
    “She's all right?” Dragon asked, concerned.
    “Of course she is. Turns out she swims like a fish … or something. She thought it was wonderful, came up laughing and wanted to stay in. Hinted she ought to be allowed to strip down to her shift. Now there was a good idea!”
    “She's
that
innocent?”
    “Apparently. She's had a rather odd upbringing.”
    Dragon gave up restraining himself and yielded to deep-throated laughter. When he caught his breath, he said, “Beautiful, soft-spoken, lovely eyes, unpredictable,
and
utterly innocent. I can see